Sarah Palin and the KKK-supporting, gay-hating, rape-defending bigot

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Last month, Sarah Palin nominated Wayne Anthony Ross (WAR) to be Alaska's new attorney general. Turns out, he's a rather despicable fellow. As Max Blumenthal reports in a post at The Daily Beast, "Palin's New Disaster":

Ross, a colorful far-right lawyer and longtime Palin ally who sports his initials, W.A.R., on his Hummer's vanity plates, was once considered a shoo-in for confirmation. However, his nomination was thrown into grave peril when his opponents presented evidence that he called homosexuals "degenerates," leveled invective against an African-American student offended by a statue of a Klansman, vowed to undermine the sovereignty of Native American tribes, and allegedly defended men who rape their wives.

That's probably extreme even by Republican standards -- even by Alaska Republican standards -- even by Palin's standards. And she may dump him "before his appointment comes to a vote."

Here's the thing, though: How did Palin's people miss this? How did they think Ross was the right man for the job? Did they -- did Palin -- really know nothing of his past, nothing of his views? Hard to believe.

After all, Palin is only backing down (if she backs down at all) because the story got out, because Ross's past and views came to light. At some point, and until just recently, she did think he was the right man for the job. It seems unlikely, assuming that she knew about some of his past and some of his views before the story came to light, that she would have asked him to withdraw (if she actually does) if the story had never gotten out.

In Palin's world, bigotry is fine in private, and perhaps also in public, if to a lesser degree, and only becomes a problem if Palin's political career is threatened by it.